Canon EOS 450D (Digital Rebel XSi / Kiss X2 Digital) Review

Camera settings and information display

As it doesn't have a secondary (top panel) display the EOS 450D uses the main LCD monitor for camera settings display during normal shooting. Thanks to a proximity sensor this display is automatically blanked when you raise your eye to the viewfinder (so as not to be distracting). In addition there is a secondary status display available by pressing the DISP button while in the camera menu (shown on the right below).

Camera settings display

Additional status display (from menu)

Card cover open / camera power off buffer write warning

If there are images still buffered when you open the storage card door or turn the power switch to the Off position this count-down display is shown indicating that the camera is still busy writing ('recording') images to the storage card. Note that we could only produce this warning with a continuous burst of RAW images and a relatively slow card (as write times are relatively short anyway).

Record review & Play

By default the EOS 450D provides a two second review display immediately after the shot is taken, this can be disabled or extended to 4 or 8 seconds or as long as you hold the shutter release button. During record review you can press the Erase button to cancel / erase the current image. Record review and play share the same display options, just press the DISP button to select between the available modes (see below).

Play magnification

In play mode the AE Lock and AF point selection buttons double up to provide magnification. There are a total of fifteen magnification levels, the last of which appears to get close to 1:1 view (one image pixel to one LCD pixel).

Play thumbnail index

Unlike the EOS 400D the 450D provides two levels of thumbnail index, the initial view being a four image 2x2 index, press the thumbnail button once more to switch to a nine image 3x3 index. You can use the arrow buttons to move around images and the main dial to jump pages of images.

Other play displays

Below you can see an example of two other play mode displays; the single image erase dialog and an example of using the selective protect option from the play menu.